U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski sent a letter to The Hill today in response to its story about a $5.6 earmark that the Department of Transportation had refused to move forward. Here it is...

Dear Editor:

Anyone who has been actively engaged in bringing jobs to his district through federal grants understands that there are inevitably obstacles and occasionally opponents. Your recent story outlines fifteen years of my work to bring 300 jobs into Nanticoke, Pennsylvania; the story includes some truth but also some falsehoods. It is true that I led the effort to bring the Travelers Insurance Company into Nanticoke, and about 300 people worked there for nearly ten years. A successor to the Medicare claims processing contract lost the contract with CMS, and the building is now vacant.

I have been working with local elected officials and the leadership of Luzerne County Community College to improve downtown Nanticoke, most recently to transform the Travelers building into a health sciences center for the college. I obtained $5.6 million in the 2005 transportation bill to provide adequate parking in conjunction with the center; these funds are still available and I have been working with the Department of Transportation to make sure those funds are well spent in Nanticoke. Regarding the other earmarks which were changed in the technical corrections bill, these changes were made at the request of the local elected officials to meet their needs.

It is difficult enough to successfully complete complex projects under the best of circumstances; in the context of a heated campaign season it is even more difficult. It is well known in Nanticoke that the state representative aspires to my seat in Congress, and his observations are taken with an appropriate grain of salt. I hope that readers of The Hill will do the same.